Hi Michael - thank you for even taking the time to read this; it's quite appreciated!

With all the diverse artists you have worked with, on so many fantastic albums, could you share your general approach to production. I.E. When you hear a song by an artist do you instantly hear/see the overall production in your mind, or is it something that grows along track to track, song to song.

With recording in the home being so prevalent these days, I find we can all make some good sounding "demos". For my own recordings, I keep finding that the production is coming out of each track being layered, and I'm uncertain if this is a good approach, or if there are better methods I should utilize.

It's my pleasure. I generally have an impression of what a record will be (if not sound) like before any work is done on it. This is a result of focusing intently on the material I'll be producing and I can "see" how it will look in my mind's eye. It's hard to explain, but I always get a mental "impression" around a piece of music and this is part of what causes it to be appealing to me or not. The way it sounds then, is a natural extrapolation of this mental or inner impression.

As far as production- that is a personal thing. Each producer has- or needs- their own way of working with music and sensing what it needs to make it as great as possible. From what you have described, you have your own approach that works for you. If this ever becomes limiting for you, you will seek a different way of doing it. From a conceptual perspective, there are an infinite number of ways to produce a record. The best (and only) approach I know is to follow whatever feels right and turn away from whatever feels wrong. This may sound incredibly simplistic, but if you follow this approach you will always be happy with your work.